Page:The Surgical Instruments of the Hindus Vol 1.djvu/10

ii we learn that when Parīkṣit, the king of the Kurus, became certain of his approaching death by snake-bite, due to a curse uttered by a sage, he tried to protect himself by the constant attendance of a number of physicians, who were well supplied with antidotes. Again it is stated that when the great warrior Bhīṣma was wounded in war, the skillful army surgeons came to him with the necessary medical and surgical appliances to treat his wounds. From the Mohāvāgga, we learn that Jīvaka, the personal physician of Buddha, practised cranial surgery with success. In the Mālavikāgnimitra, we find the use of charms—a signet